only revolutions

even if it rained all the time.

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:50:30 GMT

There is this cat on my lap. It's cute and it's sleepy and it's purring and I cannot possibly get up, because that would mean disturbing it. And, I mean, it's really cute.

Things I am doing: trying to install Fedora linux on a flash drive so I can take it with me when I go to see my parents, etc; trying to write an essay about North Africa during the Roman Empire; wondering what to eat for dinner tonight; trying to fix bugs in the Wildflowers/Clover layout I made a while back; finally managing to wrangle some photographs off the SD card I took to Scotland; not writing journal entries of any interest to anyone.

Here are a few of the pictures, then, in case anyone wants to see:

A little bird nestled into a tree.

A duckling swimming in the sunshine.

The beach, towards evening.

A sheep on a rock.

Sunset through the trees.

A not-at-all-camera-shy deer.

I miss Scotland. It would be kind of nice to go back. I could use another two or three weeks of quiet and calm and walking on the beach looking for seaglass.

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Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:27:22 GMT

I was going to post pictures from my holiday in Scotland, but my computer is refusing to acknowledge that the SD card they're on even exists. Huh.

Instead, I will rant in a VERY SPOILERY way about Phoenix Wright.

( GREAT BIG SPOILERS for the final case of Justice For All )

... I have not actually finished this case yet (though hopefully I will have done by the end of today), so no spoilers in the comments just yet please. :)

[ETA: finished! Spoiler away. <3]

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Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:59:43 GMT

Happy Bastille Day to my friends in France (and anybody else who'd like to celebrate it)!

(I wish I was there today. Sad revolutions is sad.)

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Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:13:33 GMT

Apologies for having disappeared for a bit; I have literally (as in, about twenty minutes ago) just got back from a couple of weeks in Scotland with the family. Which was lovely, and which will be posted about later, with picspam. For now, I think food and a hot bath and possibly a glass of wine are called for.

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Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:47:52 GMT

I keep wanting to make more serious-business entries in here, but my brain is not co-operating with this wish. (Seriously, I think right now I have just about the worst brain-fog I've had in years. It's a major effort just to formulate a sentence out loud right now; writing works a bit better since I can stop and think about it, but trying to speak just results in a near-incomphrensible babble of spoonerisms and mispronunciations and wrong words in wrong places. Coherency, I can not has it.) So instead, you get my stream-of-consciousness post-birthday babbling.

I think I'm suffering a little from post-awesomeness comedown, actually. My thirtieth birthday had been looming slightly scarily at me for so long, and now it's finished and over and I am just, you know, sitting around being thirty. And as for Stratford... well, I had been kind of waiting to go there since I was about fourteen. And now I went and came back and... well, yeah.

It was epic win, though; both the plays were so good. I think in the end I loved As You Like It just slightly a little more, which surprised me since I usually like the serious-business plays best. But it was just so damn good and argh. I loved Rosalind, I loved slightly-creepy-slightly-incesty Celia, I loved Touchstone, loved the songs, the slightly bizarre costumes and set design, the whole lot.

... I wish I was in the RSC and got to do that for a living. Or failing that, I wish I lived in Stratford. On a houseboat. Or a flat by the river. And that I could drop by any time I felt like it and watch the plays or hang around the little bookshops. Hahah, because I could afford that.

... sorry. I am such a feckin' nerd, I know. But argh, Shakespeare has been one of my long-running obsessions/perseverations ever since I was a kid, and I guess that trip has kicked it into high gear again. It was just so much win being in a place where it felt almost as if the whole town shared my obsession. Though perhaps I'd get sick of it if I lived there? (And perhaps not. When I was a little girl I used to say that I wanted to live by the seaside, but my cousin told me it wouldn't be worth it because if I lived there all the time I'd get sick of it. But I did move to the seaside, for a few years, and I never got sick of it at all - in fact I still miss it constantly. I have a pretty long attention span for things I like.)

Maybe I will go see this if I can get/afford the tickets, just to pacify my inner litgeek?

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Stratford picspam!

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:23:01 GMT

I actually remembered to take my camera this time! So, picspam. There should be mini-descriptions in the alt-text, but I'll edit the post with proper descriptions tomorrow when I'm less tired.

( Lots of images under here. )

( Descriptions of the photos under here )

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best. birthday gift. ever.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:02:18 GMT

Stratford is just absolutely beautiful. And despite earlier forecasts of rain, we have the most perfect weather for it, too!

Here are things I have done so far:

watched As You Like It, which was absolutely wonderful and (surprisingly) genuinely funny
developed a tiny crush on drag!Rosalind
drunk sparkling wine afterwards to celebrate the best birthday present ever
called my parents about five times to say thankyou for said present
spent an afternoon lazing around in the sun by the river eating baguettes and feeding swans
... been bitten by a swan
failed really quite a lot at rowing a row-boat
watched a cygnet paddling around the river with its mum and taken many photographs of it
realised that cygnets are absolutely adorable, and "The Ugly Duckling" really needs to be renamed "The Very Large And Oddly Coloured But Nonetheless Unbelievably Cute Duckling"
sunburned myself all down my right side and on my nose
stared at a jewellery shop called "Iago's" in complete confusion that anyone thought that name was a good idea. ("Iago's: For that very special gift for her that says 'I'll stab you in act five'.")
been excessively amused by "Romeo and Juliet's Adult Toy Store"
lol'd at esque critiquing the Stratford Waterstones' display window
completely failed to find the "Shakespearience" that I wanted to go to, but never mind
tired myself out so completely that today I cannot leave my hotel room. Am now conserving my energy because...
I am seeing The Winter's Tale tonight, which I am so excited about because it's... probably in my top five Shakespeare plays?
... realised that the fact that I have a top five list of Shakespeare plays makes me a huge, irredeemable litgeek forever
(in case you were wondering, it's probably Othello, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, and Much Ado About Nothing. Although maybe Anthony and Cleopatra should be in there, I don't know.)
in any case, I really love The Winter's Tale and its wonderfully odd Gainax Ending
(also, am very curious to see how they'll do the famous "Exit, pursued by a bear" direction)

In conclusion, absolutely awesome thirtieth birthday present is absolutely awesome. Completely worth turning thirty for. And now, I am going to try to eat something and maybe nap so I will be awake enough for the play tonight. <3

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Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:12:47 GMT

I have been a bit (okay, a lot) crap at posting and commenting lately, haven't I? I've just been... even more exhausted and brainfoggy than usual, I guess. And now, I'm off to Stratford for four days to see the RSC perform (my thirtieth birthday present from my parents, and OMG SO EXCITED, because I've wanted to see the RSC since forever). I don't know that I'll have much/any internet access while there, but... at least when I get back, I should have something to write about. :)

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finally getting around to doing this

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:27:54 GMT

( things you should know about me if you read my journal )

I am now fretting that everybody is just going to go "whatever, freakshow. DE-ADD!" when they read this. Heh.

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Twenty-nine years eleven months four weeks two days and how many hours...?

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:43:10 GMT

Today is the last day of my twenties. How did this happen? I'm pretty sure I wasn't expecting this. I mean, I was aware that time passes and if you keep having birthdays you'll eventually get to the thirtieth one, but I think I was vaguely expecting some sort of exception to be made in my case.

That said, I am actually feeling pretty good about it. On the last day of my teens I freaked out a bit, but this... feels okay. I liked my twenties; they were difficult, because of getting ill, but they've been lovely - and yet I don't really feel the need/desire/whatever to extend them any further. Bring on the next part. Everybody says your thirties are supposed to be pretty great, anyway, so here's hoping.

Also, my birthday seems to have fallen (hopefully, if this keeps up) right in the middle of one of Manchester's rare spells of actual sunshine. This is good. (I think I've even managed to turn my skin from its usual sour-cream white to a very faint pinkish-brown. Let us hope it remains at that stage and doesn't mutate into lobster-red. Stupid Scottish genes.) Yesterday the housemates & I went to my parents' house in Small-Lancastrian-Village where I grew up for my (tiny) family birthday party with cake and wholesome organic food and things, and it was just beautiful. S-L-V can be a bit grey and dismal for much of the year, but in spring/summer it really comes into its own. You have never seen so many buttercups. ♥

Today I walked into town and watched all the confused English people going "huh? sun? with heat?" and bought myself a sundress and a new lip ring (hey, I'm allowed to buy myself birthday presents, yes?) and it was lovely, and, yes. Today was good. Let us hope tomorrow is too.

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Mon, 25 May 2009 17:35:15 GMT

Lilac-ish layout for the Glorious 25th of May. It is apparently also Towel Day, and, appropriately given the other two, Geek Pride Day (which I'd never heard of before).

I really haven't been writing anything in here and I need to change that, but... I've just been too sleepy and spacey most of the time lately. Melatonin is helping me sleep, but making it very hard for me to wake up again; I stay sleepy and dreamy and distant for the whole day. Just writing this much has taken a huge effort. I think I need to find something else for my sleep issues, unfortunately.

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This entry is nothing but me being a history geek.

Mon, 18 May 2009 23:19:05 GMT

1. I am doing the happy dance of nerd joy because my essay on Juvenal's satires got 82%. :D

2. Is it bad that I almost kind of want to write Cope/Marsh fanfic? Seriously, I was reading about palaeontology history and things today, and clearly they were just full of the FoeYay.

3. I am really really amused by this Kate Beaton comic. Also, the person in the comments who described the Young Victoria movie as "a two-hour elaboration of Victoria's boner for Albert".

4. Hey, maybe I could bribe Kate Beaton to draw the Cope/Marsh slash. Uhm, yeah. XD

[Edit: oops, forgot to include a description of the comic. Added one in the comments, since it is kind of long.]

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I fail at long entries right now.

Mon, 18 May 2009 14:39:36 GMT

You guys. It's a tuxedo kitty in a tuxedo.

( description for screen readers etc )

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mini-post

Thu, 14 May 2009 13:52:19 GMT

Holy crap, how great is this? I want one!

[Edit: let's try that again with the correct link, shall we?]

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Wed, 13 May 2009 10:13:37 GMT

1. Remember how I said I had a "pretty unthreatening" bug of some sort? It mutated into full-on flu so violent that my mother has spent the last few days fretting about H1N1. However, I am now able to perform complicated tasks like getting up and drinking a cup of tea, so presumably I'm on the mend.

2. This is one of the best flash-game style things I've ever found via StumbleUpon. It's very very pretty, and fun in a logic-puzzle sort of way too. And once you get into the later levels, it's almost as much fun just to play around with the patterns of light and music as it is to try to solve it. If I ever have any money again, I might even buy the full version.

(... I keep finding myself thinking about Braid when I play it. I don't know why. It is absolutely nothing like Braid. It isn't a platform game, it doesn't have a weird twisty storyline - or any storyline - and it is not even remotely the same genre. It's not even comparing apples to oranges, it's like comparing apples to... fish and chips, or something. The only connection I can make is the pretty classical-esque music, and the fact that on some levels it seems to require similar sort of lateral thinking, in a way.)

3. As long as I'm talking about Braid: it's good! Play it!

4. I wonder if trying to eat breakfast would be too ambitious...? I feel sick, but dammit I am so hungry.

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ARGH.

Sun, 10 May 2009 04:40:33 GMT

So, I have this cold, or bug, or virusy thing, whatever it is. It is not actually that bad. I mostly feel like I have a sore throat and a kind of annoying sniffle, maybe a mild cough. So, as bugs go, pretty unthreatening.

That is, as long as I'm standing up. If I attempt to lie down, even briefly, I immediately feel like my head is full of concrete and my lungs are trying to hack their way out of my chest cavity. If I stand up again, however, within thirty seconds - literally - I feel normalish again. This is just weird. It is also not very conducive to getting any sleep, which is why I am up and typing a journal entry at half-past five in the morning. I am so sleepy that my eyes feel like they are full of sand, but lying down is not just not working for me. Does anybody know how to sleep standing up?

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Sat, 09 May 2009 22:03:51 GMT

... so, I sort of made a layout? I'm not going to post it to dreamwidthlayouts, because a) the CSS is really, really messy, and b) I figured out a lot of it from looking at boo's CSS file for the layout I'm using, so it'd feel kind of like I was taking credit for her work. But still, I am kind of going "ooh, awesome" at myself for having managed to wrap my head round the Dreamwidth layouts enough to design anything for them. Especially since it's about three or four years since I did anything like that for LJ, even.

There was a lot more stuff I was going to write about but I cannot has brain today, so for now I will just say: hey, this blog is really interesting! (Mind Hacks: it's about odd psychological/neuroscience brain stuff and effects and illusions and things.)

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Wed, 06 May 2009 23:21:32 GMT

1. Look how pretty my layout is! boo wins at journal design, clearly. (I really need to start figuring out this whole Core2 thing. It'd be nice to be able to make my own layouts, or even tweak them a little.)

2. So I'm, like, moderating a community with actual members, and posting in it, and running a contest and everything. I think Dreamwidth has turned me into an internet extrovert. Also, the phrase "turned me into an internet extrovert" is probably really difficult to say.

3. I'm going to Stratford-upon-Avon for my birthday (thirtieth) (next month) and seeing TWO performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This fills me with so much lit-geek joy, I can't tell you. (As You Like It and The Winter's Tale, in case anybody wondered.)

4. I spent nearly all of today sleeping. I shouldn't have, with papers due by Friday morning and all, but I couldn't seem to wake myself up. Stupid CFIDS. At least it makes a change from not being able to sleep?...

5. And at least I've managed to start the essay on the Romans?... No, I'm about halfway through it now, actually. Going to work at it for another hour and then crawl into my bed.

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Mon, 04 May 2009 20:28:46 GMT

I've just gone through my circle and given access to everyone. This is just so that if I want to lock something that mentions specific details of where I live/work/etc., I can do that without it becoming invisible. :) I want to try being pretty open on this journal rather than keeping to myself, so I don't expect to access-lock many posts at all - and if I do find I want to write about deeply personal stuff, there's always filters - so it seemed to make sense. So. Hello everyone. :)

I would write more, but... there's a 2000-word essay about Romans and Pompeii with my name on it. Also, I am extremely tired; today was a bank holiday, and it was raining, and I was running the dinosaur table at the museum. I have no idea how many kids I met today. A LOT. Including one little girl who attempted to steal a trilobite by sticking it down her pants. (After 430 million years of existence, I suppose that trilobite has seen a lot. But I'm willing to bet that was a first for it.)

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I can never think of subject lines.

Sat, 02 May 2009 22:04:14 GMT

1. I love how friendly Dreamwidth is so far. I only got my invite code two weeks ago, and I have a subscription list full of more than forty interesting and awesome people. :) Love this place.

2. I keep thinking it's Sunday. You know when you just sort of get mentally stuck one day ahead or behind of actual time? That. I think it's because not doing the Lindow Man exhibition on Friday threw me off somehow.

3. ... I'm really going to miss Lindow Man. I was strangely attached to him, in an odd way. Stupid British Museum wanting him back.

4. I'm staying at my parents' house for the night and they took me out for dinner. Delicious free Chinese food get!

5. Are there really only three cases in Phoenix Wright: Justice for All? I'm on the last one already! I'm guessing it's going to be a huge complicated one, though, since the final ones generally seem to be.

6. For people reading this on LJ or Inksome, I still have one DW code to give out! Let me know if you want it, otherwise I'll hand it out on the codesharing comm.

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Fri, 01 May 2009 00:30:49 GMT

Sooo, open beta in, what, forty minutes? Awesome. (Although now I will no longer feel all cool and exclusive for having a journal here. Hahaha.)

Today has been made of lying on my bed feeling exhausted and not writing my essay on Claudius. Even though Claudius is easily my favourite emperor, thanks to Derek Jacobi and Robert Graves. (Because I, Claudius is totally a historically accurate documentary. Shut up.) I did, however, manage to book an appointment at a clinic next week for a whole new round of blood tests, scans, etc. Mostly focusing on fertility issues this time round, since... well, I'm nearly thirty, I have messed-up hormones, it's been an issue that's been hovering around in my head for a while, and... I at least just want to know if things are working properly, you know?

... so, yeah, needles. Man, I love needles. And when I say "love", I mean "violently hate and fear". I'm kind of proud of actually being brave enough to do it, though. Look at me, being a grown-up.

(Heh, I just got an email telling me my (fake) paid Dreamwidth account has expired. Ohnoes! I'll have to make do with only six icons for the next.... half an hour. XD)

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Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:53:16 GMT

Made another community, because I can: creepypasta. Share and discuss creepy stuff of all varieties. :)

And now, I think it's time for this journal's very first meme, taken from a couple of people around the place...

Make a list of ten fictional characters. Pick LJ(/DW) usernames for them. Then answer the questions!

1. Dream (Sandman) - lordshaper
2. Johnny Truant (House of Leaves) - nothingleft
3. Rosalie Lamorliere (Rose of Versailles) - pinkblossom
4. Crowley (Good Omens) - saunteredvaguely
5. Maya Fey (Ace Attorney) - xmysticgirlx
6. Tiffany Aching (Discworld) - landunderwave
7. Nobby Nobbs (Discworld) - totallyahuman
8. J. Alfred Prufrock (what? he totally counts) - do_i_dare
9. Emily (Emily of New Moon, which I loved as a kid) - starrlight
10. Apollo Justice (Ace Attorney) - chordsofsteel

( under here! )

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Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:20:47 GMT

Quiet day at the museum, mostly. Spent about half an hour chatting to some guy; we started off on Anubis (I was in Egyptology today), got on to Neil Gaiman and American Gods, from there to Silent Hill, and then finished up discussing strategies for what we'd do if a zombie outbreak happened right now and the mummies started breaking out of their cases (run for the room with the swords and crossbows, and hope like hell that the T-rex stayed dead). I love it when I run into fellow geeks in the offline world.

Right now, I am attempting to put red streaks into my hair. This could collapse to win or fail. Crossing my fingers.

[Edit: Is anyone else having trouble with crossposting? Mine keep failing, for no reason I can figure out.]

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Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:02:59 GMT

1. I have Variable Flow up and running as my layout now. :) This makes Dreamwidth feel like home.

2. Four people joined my community already? (Okay, three, not including me.) But still! Win!

3. There's a cat on my lap and she keeps trying to bite me in an affectionate, but still somewhat painful, sort of way.

4. I went to Blackpool yesterday for the afternoon with my housemates, and, while it was a completely awesome day full of rollercoasters and sand and sunshine and pink champagne, it also left me completely exhausted and I've spent the whole day today just wishing I could go back to sleep. This was entirely predictable, and was a price worth paying for such a nice day out, so I don't mind that too much. What I do mind is that now it is sleeping time, my body has decided that sleep is the LAST thing it wants to do. What the hell, body.

5. This is especially annoying because I am on dinosaur-handling-table duty at the museum tomorrow, and I really don't want to end up being too exhausted to get there. I've already had to miss the last two dinosaur-table shifts due to exams etc., and I really like doing them. I get to talk to wildly enthusiastic children about prehistoric creatures and show them the fossils and listen to them squee about the T-rex skeleton and things. It's fun.

6. For those of you who are new to my journal (hi! *waves*), I should probably tell you that I tend to make list-esque entries like this quite a lot.

7. I'm sort of craving peppermint tea, even though it's one o'clock in the morning. Maybe I will go make some.

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Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:58:43 GMT

I'm not cross-posting this, because it's Dreamwidth-specific stuff.

1. I made a community! Probably a very low traffic one, but I felt Dreamwidth needed a Danielewski community, therefore: navidsonrecord.

2. I love that the maximum username length has been extended to... is it twenty-five characters, I think? This opens up so many possibilities for community and user names. (I did consider going with wehauefoundftaires for the above, but...)

3. I have no idea yet what my "circle policy" is going to be. I've subscribed to a whole load of people who look interesting, but haven't put anyone on my "access list" except friends I've known for quite a while via other sites. I suppose since I don't plan to make a lot of locked posts at all, it doesn't make a huge difference; I might very well just stick everyone onto my "access list", so I can occasionally lock posts down that contain personal information but people can still read them. Or perhaps I'll just wait until the "hm, do I want to lock this?" issue actually arises. I don't know. This is a whole new interesting social-networking dilemma, hm. :) What are other people doing about this?

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